Original articleAssociation between Amygdala Hyperactivity to Harsh Faces and Severity of Social Anxiety in Generalized Social Phobia
Section snippets
Subjects
Ten subjects with GSP, based on DSM-IV criteria (≥7 of 12 social fears) as verified by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (First et al 1995) with additional probes from the self-administered Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS-SR) (Fresco et al 2001, Heimberg et al 1999), and ten healthy comparison (HC) subjects participated in the study. None of the GSP patients had a current/recent depressive episode (within 12 months of study entry) or a lifetime history of any other Axis I
Results
Subjects with GSP and HCs did not differ significantly in the overall mean accuracy (e.g., across emotions) of face emotion recognition (GSP: 76.2 ± 11.2% correct vs. HC: 76.2 ± 11.7% correct, p > .7), or overall response times (GSP: 3.1 ± 1.2 sec vs. HC: 2.8 ± .7 sec, p > .6). Similarly, the emotion recognition and reaction times for each emotional expression were not significantly different between-groups (all p > .2).
Relative to healthy controls, subjects with GSP had greater brain
Discussion
To our knowledge, this is the first report of an association between amygdala responsivity to aversive faces and severity of social anxiety symptoms in generalized social phobia. The findings support those of recent similar studies (Stein et al 2002, Straube et al 2004) and suggest that amygdala hyper-responsivity to socially salient (e.g., emotional faces with aversive expressions) stimuli can be reliably measured in this population. They also extend previous findings in a group of patients
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